Investigation of Finite-Difference Schemes for the Numerical Solution of a Fractional Nonlinear Equation

Abstract

The article discusses different schemes for the numerical solution of the fractional Riccati equation with variable coefficients and variable memory, where the fractional derivative is understood in the sense of Gerasimov-Caputo. For a nonlinear fractional equation, in the general case, theorems of approximation, stability, and convergence of a nonlocal implicit finite difference scheme (IFDS) are proved. For IFDS, it is shown that the scheme converges with the order corresponding to the estimate for approximating the Gerasimov-Caputo fractional operator. The IFDS scheme is solved by the modified Newton’s method (MNM), for which it is shown that the method is locally stable and converges with the first order of accuracy. In the case of the fractional Riccati equation, approximation, stability, and convergence theorems are proved for a nonlocal explicit finite difference scheme (EFDS). It is shown that EFDS conditionally converges with the first order of accuracy. On specific test examples, the computational accuracy of numerical methods was estimated according to Runge’s rule and compared with the exact solution. It is shown that the order of computational accuracy of numerical methods tends to the theoretical order of accuracy with increasing nodes of the computational grid.